“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”
– Erma Bombeck
It all started on a sleepless night when I was in bed well past midnight and eventually resigned myself to watching a “M*A*S*H” rerun on television. It was Season 9, Episode 6, “A War for All Seasons.”
Four stories from the year 1951 were intertwined. The Sears catalog was ever-present. Hawkeye and B.J. tried to land a kidney machine for one of their patients; Margaret took up knitting; and Charles bet a large sum of money on the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had an 8 1/2-game lead in August, to win the National League pennant. That bet went awry when the New York Giants beat the Dodgers in a playoff game on Bobby Thompson’s ninth-inning, three-run home run that became known as the “shot heard ’round the world.”
The storyline that touched me the most was Father Mulcahy’s garden. Among the various vegetables, his crop of sweet corn grew to perfection during that hot summer in Korea. He declared they should all have a picnic to celebrate. Having a picnic would be a reminder of being back home at a backyard barbecue. He handed over his prized corn to Igor, the cook for the 4077th, only to discover that he creamed the whole batch. “You ninny!” It was all the good reverend could muster up in his anger.
I felt his pain. With the sweet corn season being so short, having to waste a single bite into a fresh kernel would be a travesty. The end of that episode focused on a garden that had all but disappeared in freezing temperatures with blowing snow.
That episode is reminiscent of backyard barbecues with my family on the Fourth of July when I was young. We would pick tomatoes from the garden, then pick up a dozen ears of corn from a local roadside stand. The corn would have been freshly picked that morning.
Back then, if you paid $2 a dozen, it was considered too much. When we got back, my dad always asked how much we paid. We would always tell a white lie and say $1.50 so we didn’t have to hear a long lecture about how we should have been more careful with money.
Our classic Fourth of July fare consisted of ribs, grilled corn and fresh-sliced tomatoes. To this day, that combination tastes like summer to me. The ribs I’ve made for my own family were good, but recently I got a recipe that raised my last batch to a level of excellence. There was nothing left on the platter when I served these.
I was fortunate to acquire this recipe from Harpswell Aging at Home volunteers George and Cindy Mudford. For five years they have been key volunteers on the food team for the Meals in a Pinch program.
They moved to Harpswell from Long Island, New York. Before that, George and Cindy lived in England, where George is originally from and where their four children were born.
This recipe is based on the ribs served at a weekly barbecue lunch on a beach on Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands, where George worked at a resort as a young man in the early ’70s. The sauce makes these ribs so tender that the meat literally falls off the bone.
Try this recipe for your next barbecue. Trust me. You will be amazed at how good they are. These also can be made a day before and reheated to serve.
George’s barbecued spareribs
Ingredients:
Rack of spareribs, cut into individual ribs
Water to pour around the ribs
Sauce:
6 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups barbecue sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s or similar)
1/2 cup ketchup
2 ounces Worcestershire sauce
1 ounce vegetable oil
4 ounces water
Salt and pepper to taste
Additional water to pour around the ribs
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lay ribs in roasting pans. Mix sauce ingredients and pour over the ribs. Add water to half-cover the ribs in the pan. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 350 degrees. Turn the ribs over with tongs. Leaving the foil off, bake for another 20 minutes. Turn every 10 minutes to keep ribs caramelizing and browning. Keep an eye on the ribs, as the sweetness of the sauce can cause it to burn. Ribs will get tender and liquid will reduce.
Remove ribs to an oven-safe serving dish. Pour remaining sauce from the roasting pan into a bowl. Skim off all the fat from the sauce and discard. Pour remaining sauce over the ribs.
Warm up in the oven, if needed, and serve. Or, as I prefer to do, throw these ribs on the grill for 2 minutes on each side to grab some extra flavor. Enjoy!
Cooking at 43° North, a program of Harpswell Aging at Home, brings Harpswell residents together for cooking programs, in person and online. Watch the Anchor calendar for listings.
Harpswell Aging at Home always needs cooks for its Meals in a Pinch program, which provides nutritious meals to older neighbors in need of emergency assistance. For more information, contact Julie Moulton at 207-330-5416 or juliemoulton28@gmail.com.
